Latest figures published by market research group Kantar has revealed that Windows Phone is on the rise across the board, excluding a number of markets where sales remain low. The Nokia Lumia 920, HTC 8X and Samsung ATIV S are all high-end smartphones that will be pushing the platform forward in 2013 with potential marketshare gain in multiple locations, but how has the platform progressed through 2012?

According to supplied data, Windows Phone is continuing to grow in a number of markets, comparing marketshare of November 2012 and the same period the previous year. Italy again saw the highest increase at 8.2%, while Great Britain of all markets came in second with 3.4% (largely down to Nokia's Lumia efforts), just behind Android. The platform is still evidently lagging behind, but it's definitely taking strides.

The data does not reflect launches of hardware by supporting OEMs, since we're closing at November which is when Windows Phone 8 was officially released. We'll be waiting for data that'll include the festive holidays with the ATIV S being made available, as well as the Lumia 920 exclusivity coming to an end in the UK.

But not all is rosy in the marketshare table as both Germany and Brazil reported drops of 1.4% and 1.8% respectively. Again, this is before we take into account the latest hardware, but it does show a slowdown with the disappointment caused by the non-upgradable-to-Apollo Windows Phones that were released earlier this year. EU5 as a whole (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) saw an increase of 2.1% for Windows Phone.

In the US, Android took a battering while iOS regained some ground. Google's platform fell behind Apple with a reported fall in marketshare of almost 11%, while Windows Phone enjoyed growth of 0.6%. It's minute, but we'll take it over a sudden drop that Android experienced. The US may be switching to an iOS dominated market, but Europe remains on Android's side of the fence.

Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, had the following to comment on the performance of Windows Phone:

"Although Windows sales in the US remain subdued, Nokia is managing to claw back some of its share in Great Britain through keenly priced Lumia 800 and 610 prepay deals. The next period will prove crucial in revealing initial consumer reactions to the Nokia 920 and HTC Windows 8X devices.

Nokia continues to find it tough to attract younger consumers in Great Britain. Over the past six months, just 28% of Nokia Lumia 800 sales have come from under 35’s, compared with 42% of all smartphone sales. With the Nokia Lumia 920 being one of the few handsets available on EE 4G, new tariffs may help to change this by attracting early adopters in the coming months."

Is it looking positive for Windows Phone? Sure it is, but we'd like to see some updated figured post-New Year to really see how the new hardware is performing in retail and operator stores across the globe. 2013 will be a defining year for Microsoft. With the upcoming launch of its Surface Pro Windows tablet, Windows Phone will be closely marketed alongside Xbox and Windows 8 in attempt to drive momentum.

Reader comments

Encouraging, but Nokia need to either partner with a carrier that actually wants to promote its handsets (EE cudnt give a damn about Nokia, its all droid and iPhone) or even better, just ditch exclusivity altogether. Id have had a 920, as would a few of my friends, were it not for Nokia playing silly beggars. Now I may as well wait for the next flagship, and hope it isn't exclusive as well. On the plus side, it looks like RIM is all but dead, and Nokia/Windows Phone is has taken its place the 3rd platform in the smartphone race. RIP RIM

I was up in Macclesfield last week, a small town in the northern part of England on a business trip and I saw four people with WPs, a couple were 610s, one was a Lumia 800 and the other was a Lumia 900 or 920, I really couldn't tell.
Imagine my shock, if I'm able to see WPs in a small town like Macclesfield, the future is really starting to very bright WP, my message to Microsoft and especially Nokia is to keep up the good work.

This stuff about Germany is all nonsense after all. Those two devices that are really sold out at the moment for the xth time are the Lumia 920 and the iPad mini. And I know what I'm talking about, I was running around for both like a sucker...

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Windows Phone 8 is on the rise, alot of Android owners will switch to a WP8 device soon because they like the OS which is different and beautiful. Also some absolutely hate Apple and will never buy their devices.

Germany always was a big market for Windows Mobile. When WP7 was first released the highest marketshare for WP7 was about 7% by March 2011. However most people have then realized that WP has nothing todo with WM hence the rapid falling in marketshare to a more normal level for MS again.
Germany has always been a very hard market for MS as free software is very wide spread here and MS is being hated by most users. As an example Germany has the lowest Internet Explorer marketshare in Europe (less than 20% ue IE).

The people simply want a phone. Like the Razr before it, or the 3210, 3310 etc. Only geeks care about nuances and details. For them it's just a phone, that satisfies their newly emerged needs with things that older, simple phones can't do:

with Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram they have covered all their communication needs to be in touch and not be left out,

Maps gives them Maps and Navigation and helps them get around and find places.

The larger screen and Internet Browser allows them to Browse the internet on the go, look things up etc.

A good camera to snap photos of whatever they want

The possibility to connect it to their car or other devices, speakers, stereos etc.

And that's that more or less. And the iPhone simply delivers all of that, in a fluid and well working phone. Windows Phone doesn't. It's just a phone, no one wants a laptop in their phone, people just want a device that works out of the box. Like their watch, their mp3 player, their gameboy, their stereo or any other electronic product - think 10-30 years ago how products worked - that's how it should be. In the past 10 years too many bad products have come out that don't work like products 10-30 years ago did. It's a thing that they buy and that has to work by itself. They don't want to have to tinker with it to make it work, they don't want to have to use a computer to use it, to fkuc around all day with it, to fix things. They paid money for it, they want it to work. It should be preconfigured from the manufacturer, they paid for that, they are not working as electronics engineers for that company to have to configure it, set it up, make it work etc., that's not their job as a customer.

The really interesting figures are for Q1 2013, which includes Lumia 920 sales.
I find it a bit strange for huge company like Nokia (it still is a BIG player!!), to not be prepared to have big stacks of devices ready for launch?
People tend to get tired of waiting and change their mind to another phone if there's no phones to get hold of and the availability dates keeps being pushed forward all the time.
Also the promised '46 out of top 50 apps from other platforms' seems to be a long way ahead..?
Instagram is a HUGE, HUGE app to be missing.
I personally don't care about it, but almost all the young smartphone-buyers do, and it is DEFINITELY a dealbreaker for them.
Lack of most popular apps = little or no growth of the eco-system.
No growth of users = no interest from dev's to develop new apps.

From my point of view getting the biggest apps faster to WP is the only way for success.
Having said that, I'm not a app-junkie myself but almost everybody out there is.
And it is frustrating to see that bank-apps, payment apps etc. isn't available when you need them.

I am a developer and I'm not saying that - and I also don't know any other developer who says that. Much to the contrary, for virtually everything there are already WP8 apps so that it is very difficult to create a product that is not already there.

How to crack the German nut:
a) Proper privacy advantages campaign on RTL. Showing the privacy advantages of WP8, the devices, comparing it to Android. Make it funny!
b) You need bundles, they love that! Like buy 10 Games bundle and download 10 games of your choice, for a discount Bundle the Samsung Ativ S phone and Smart PC at Media Markt, Saturn etc. for a killer price. Later do the same with HTC and Nokia phone + Tablet.
c) You need Windows Store cards at every Lidel and Aldi store, with frequent promotions. Like easter, x-mas offers... Get 5 to 10% discount on the price of a card!
D) You need a hero device... Germans don't buy if you don't show em your competence.
I have the luck that an ex. of mine was in the German hardware distribution business, the Germans just love good deals and bundles! Once they get to know WP8 and it becomes affordable for them, they will love it!

I picked up a white Lumia 920 during launch day yesterday in Malaysia. Over 80% are adults or older people. In fact i think im the youngest one among all of those picking up their preordered Lumia 920. The sales rep was indeed surprised when i walked in to preorder 2 weeks ago, because i looked like some kid but apparently wanted to preorder a flagship device unlocked (costs USD $655 here). I'm 22 but my looks make people think im around 17-18.
Most younger people, and those around my age group use either Samsung or iPhone, even HTC's android phones are also rare. Blackberry is almost non existent (Qwerty users are using the Nokia E series or Asha devices). The app store for Malaysia is pathetic, some apps not available for unknown reasons that i had to use fake address and put my location as USA to be able to access some better paid XBOX games. Otherwise the OS itself, im pretty satisfied with it, but it deserves more improvements. Very fluid and fast.

It's getting there but popularity among young consumers lagging behind is a very bad sign. It's younger consumers that made having an iPhone and a Galaxy phone cool. They're the best word of mouth out there. They convinced their aunts and other elders to get an 'iPhone' (meaning something that looks like an iPhone a.k.a. Android junk).

On the other hand, young consumers are very aware of Windows Phone's ecosystem. They know it is missing a few key apps. So it will take some time for Windows Phone to reach a critical mass, at which point word of mouth will make WP grow among young consumers. I'm convinced its social media integration can make it very popular. The way how it syncs together all your pictures and shows your content through live tiles will make it very attractive. Word just needs to rech enough people.

I actually like these data. No info. for Canada market? It probably looks pathetic. But definitely these days a lot of ppl ask me about my L920, but they mostly refer to it as the "New Nokia Phone". More promo!

I'm a teacher and I have to say the students I see are switching from Blackberry to Windows Phone especially Lumia. I show them my 920 and the already know about it due to the huge advertising campaign and they want them. They are all leaving BBM for Whatsapp and see that their blackberry does not have the latest games. Lumias look cool with the different colours and the personalisation. If Nokia price and advertise the 620 right they could steal the BB Curve market share withe the younger kids.

As a teacher you've probably got your finger on the pulse of young folks better than most. Are you in the US or Europe? I'm in the states and it seems to me that the kids here are all agape over their "apple phones". My teenage daughter and her friends are all about i-phones and Hollister hoodies!

I am sure when the next report comes out from these guys the marketshare will be higher globally and if they keep a good product cycle going releasing some new devices here and there it will do nothing but go up.

Nice to see some growth in Australia. Was at Telstra in Westfield Parramatta today. Saw a guy and his wife buying 2 920s. I bought my old man a 610 for Christmas and a young kid spotted my 920 and was telling me his dad was at the counter buying him a 900.

I believe what will drive up the market share of Windows Phone is an inexpensive model that has good specs and comes from a trusted/known OEM. I believe the Lumia 620 will be IT.

People who are willing to shell out money to buy expensive phones like the 920 or 8X are usually already established in a platform like Android or iOS, but who might be willing to take tentative steps to try WP with the 620.

And there are those millions in emerging markets who are moving from feature phones and can only afford cheaper phones. The HTC 8S could have been IT, but specs are too dumb down and price point still high.

Since the Lumia has launched I have seen about twenty five Lumia in the wild much much better than when the nine hundred was launched in my personal account the awareness is more evident than previously experienced

DrToker beat me to it but he is right. While the news story above is good news, it is actually better than what is being reported. The percentages are being misrepresented.

As an example, the Year-over-Year percentage point increase in U.S. marketshare for the Windows phone is 0.6. But the actual percentage increase in marketshare YoY is about 29%. Clearly a more representative number which better describes the gains for Windows Phone in the last year.

iOS U.S. marketshare increased 49% in the same period and Android dropped by about 20.5%. These percentage numbers show that while WP is creating some competition for Android phones, there are still plenty of growth challenges in order to slow iOS down.

What it really shows is that people are spitting out google's candy. This explains why Google is showing such a bitter attitude toward Microsoft. They see trends like this WELL before anyone else because they run the most popular website in the world and the proof is in the connections by device. So now they're trying to flex some muscle to try and keep people from switching.
What I think they are going to find is that the distaste isn't just for android, but rather for all of their products. Google search remains as the only service you can take full advantage of without having your entire life indexed and sold.

"Google search remains as the only service you can take full advantage of without having your entire life indexed and sold."

You are so wrong on this point. Google tracks and stores multiple data points about your search activity. They look at what you search for, where you are when you search, the device, the time, the sites you click on, your search history, your friends searches compared to yours, how banners and other paid ads affect your search, how your search ties into your web browsing, how your emails match your search history and now they also tie that all into your credit card usage and offline buying. Google is not a search engine, they are an advertisement tracking conglomerate.

This is a much better analysis than the one over at WMPU. Same data, but two very different interpretation. WMPU fails to realize that most of WP8 hardware devices were launched towards the end of November before jumping to conclusions. Good job WPCentral!

I only got my 920 two days ago (f**king amazing btw) because its always sold out at my Telstra shop they had ordered 3 or 4 batches of them and i missed them all until two days ago! :D Hopefully this is a sign of lots of people buying them not Telstra getting very few in although a friend did over hear an employee talking Wp up which is a 1st! Especially for Telstra lol

The math is very wrong in this article. The increase shown is in percentage points (pp), not percent (%). Spain had the biggest increase in % (650 %), and Italy had the biggest increase in pp (8.2 pp).

Problem with BlackBerry is that their main concept, confidentiality of your data was never realized. Customers are not dumb... BB Email could just be an app on any new smartphone! There is no need to make the phone.

Well Germany is apparently the country with the natural reaction to that stupid prank MS played on it's clients with the first Lumias. People who wanted a Windows Phone already got it last year. They won't spend hundreds of Euros 6 months later for another phone.
Same can apply to most countries. So the final evaluation should be made by the end of 2013, when the people who bought the first Lumias, end their 2 year contracts and warranties. Then it will be interesting to see if they'll keep with WP or if they will also abandon it for another OS.

I published this before you said it ;) But indeed. Question is how many will keep using WP after their first phone's contracts and warranties expire and how many won't. And also, based on those, how many will attract more people to WP and how many will push people away from it. Word of mouth is powerful. It's what made Apple so trendy. If MS ignores word of mouth from their current customers...well...they'll probably be in trouble sooner than latter.

I know two WP 7 owners and both have switched to iPhone this month. They did not quite humour the whole WP 7.8 fiasco. I in turn cancelled my 920 order due to the February prank for non-Americans. Ain't appearing strong round here at least.

I am also considering switching from my 1sr gen WP to the iPhone some time in 2013, either to the 5, or to the 6 if my switch doesn't happen before summer, or to the 5 after the 6 is out and the 5 gets cheaper.
A lot of factors go into that and in favour of it, not any particular one dissatisfaction with WP, it's update policy (WP8 update is available but still no 7.8? And all we get in 7.8 is tile resize? Are you f#cking kidding me?) or any of its OEMs, but also:
- a dissatisfaction not only with the availablity but also the quality of applications. I still use the same Apps I used 18 months ago. Nothing new of relevance has been added. AND on top of that, the quality of the Apps that have been working perfectly fine a year ago has detoriated and become much worse, plus some Apps like WhatsApp are overriding system features and my personal wishes and destroying my phone experience with their audio-stream-keep-wifi-alive-battery-sucker thingy. They waste my battery and I have to turn it off every single time I enter/exit their App, which can be from a few to hundreds of times a day., and they kill my playlist in my music player with their fkicng thing, so I have the choice of not answering my message or destroying my music listening experience - great choice you fcktards. And did Microsoft block it from the market because it does something that it isn't supposed to do from the users side? No - they let them. Fu I hate it that they have taken control of that completely from my hands and I can't do anything about it.
- the system functions/applications like:
--messaging
--irritating autocorrect behaviour especially in third-party apps, also very slow keyboard reaction in third-party apps, I write and it only shows after I am a couple of letters or words ahead already. WTF?
--slow load times of third-party Apps that was supposed to be gone with WP8's native code (instead of silverlight's flash-app-like code behaviour of WP7) but is still present on WP but not on iphone
--no notification area, when I miss something it's gone and all I have left (in the best case) is a number on my live tile that doesn't tell me anything, and maybe I don't want to go online in an App and have it marked as "read" or received, maybe I want to ignore it - so I have no way of seeing what I have missed - I really wish Nokia would've developed Harmattan on Android's core (because of the Apps) and made it 100% fluid like their N9 is, I don't care about the underlying code as long as everything functions perfectly
-- The browser is plain retarded. Before Mango it had search on page and forward, but now it not only lacks those two but is completely broken. Some times I am on a web page and navigate around it, and when I want to go to the previous page (like on wpcentral, you go into an article, read it, and then go back to the homepage to read another article) it just exits the App like there was no previous site, or even goes into the App I was previously in. Sometimes the whole browser just shuts itself down if a page is too "heavy" (or whatever it is), throws me back on the start screen and erases all the tabs, so when I enter it again it is empty like I am first starting it. WTF?! Did they fix it? OF course not. Was it happening before Mango? No. They also removed the good favourites and tabs buttons that allowed for very quick navigation. You would usually just put your most visited sites in the favourites and with the tab button and the favourites button you could navigate very quickly. But now? Horrible navigation. Having to pull up that menu every single time.
-- The facebook integration is still bs, and so is the App. I have both, but never use any of them. If I want to know what's up on facebook or read a message or anything, I always use the web browser and desktop site because only that offers a proper functionality and performance. And thanks to the screwed up webbrowser, it crashes 30-50% of the time I go on facebook. What the hell is that?
-- A hundred other small irritations and broken things that I can't remember right now.

- Then the device selection. No single OEM is willing to offer me a high-end phone, with a nice design, quality made, and top of the line quality parts like screen, processor, ram, storage etc. if I don't want a fucking 10-15cm large screen. The iPhone is legit the ONLY option if you want a human-hand sized phone with top notch quality and performance. Every other OEM just puts out junk-bin hardware in everything that isn't their largest-screened phone. On Android and WP. Well, if you don't want to sell me what I want, I will buy from someone who wants to give me what I want for my money. Simple. I am still hoping that Nokia will put out a 7xx phone and revive it as their design line, but seeing how the 8xx is not their photo line any more, and the design of anything short of the highest end 9xx sucks, my hope is in vain.

They really leave me no other choice. There are things that I liked about WP, then Microsoft shortened that list, not a lot of it is left, and now they have increased the list of things that I don't like and that irritate me and hinder my use to be several times longer than the list of things I like. Basically all that is left is that I like the look of the pictures hub, and that's basically it. The Maps experience is bs. Not even the Music Player works properly and pulls covers and artist backgrounds, even if I have gone through the (that I shouldn't even have to do in the first place) trouble of finding a third party program (Zune Social Tagger) and correctly linked every Album manually in several hours of work - and it still doesn't work, even if it works properly on Zune on the Desktop and has an artist background if I go to the Marketplace and play a preview of one of the artist's songs.
Notsorry, the look of the pictures hub (after I put in cool pictures from a third-party App - again) is not enough to keep me, especially with no device selection that I would like. I can barely reach the upper left corner with my thumb on my current 3.7 inch screen, I really am not interested in carrying around a phone that has half the screen-diagional of a TV that I had when I was a kid and which I have to use two hands for to operate. Tablets are so cheap that there is no need for a huge phone anymore, that was the case before tablets came out. Today you can just buy a 100-350$ tablet for your larger-screen-because-of-websurfing needs - and keep your phone phone-sized. I don't need a tablet as a phone. And no OEM, neither on WP nor on Android, is offering me a high-end top-of-the-line device in a hand-sized package with a normal sized large screen and not a humongous screen. So they have pushed me to actually consider purchasing something from a company that I personally don't like a bit. But what am I gonna do...they DO have the best product. Others don't seem to want to make a product as good.

Of course, it must be me who is making the Browser crash, who has installed a hack into an App, who makes the keyboard slow or who brings out bad devices, it absolutely can't be this perfect and error-free OS... screw you tool. This fanboyism is really going too far lately. I gave the underdogs a chance for now 3 years. First Samsung's bada and then Windows Phone. They can't get it right while others can. Why should I punish myself any more when I can, for the same amount of money, get a good product that works how it should and accomodates me as a person to use it to it's fullest extent? Especially when WP doesn't even have all of it's functions outside of the US and doesn't accomodate the usage models of different markets. I can buy an itunes card literally everywhere, in electronics stores, in phone stores, at gas stations, even in drugstores, and purches apps with them. I am not about to put my credit card into my account, seeing how often that stuff is hacked nowadays and millions of credit card numbers stolen. A lot of Europeans don't even have or use credit cards, no one will get one because of a phone. To get back to you: You are a douchebag, plain and simple. Everyone who is honest with himself knows that what I have written is true and that he has encountered at least several of them, if not all, at one point or another. I have defended WP for a long time when people would call things an error when they were just making a mistake or didn't know how to do something, I converted several people to Windows Phones (and most of what was promised to them was broken later on and every one of them is unhappy with his/her device - and I feel like an asshole for even suggesting it to them instead of just letting them get an iphone), none of which will purchase another one. And that's not only the case with "my people" but with WP users in Germany as a whole, who adopted to WP with the Lumia 800 over a year ago, and when I go to the marketplace, all the App reviews for the most popular Apps are negative, no one is satisfied, everyone is writing how it should be working as well as on iPhone and Android and why it doesn't - and how they blame MS and Windows and WP and Nokia - whether that is the correct party to blame is absolutely unimportant, it just tells you that they won't recommend it and won't buy another one, and will actively swerve people away from it and tell them to get an "iPhone" or a "Galaxy". WP is as good as dead in Germany. It just doesn't work like it should, and not as well as other plattforms, not for me and not for other people. That's really the bottom line.
Why should I punish myself any more?

Just get yourself an iPhone5... I gave up on Apple iPhones, after my iPhone4 froze for 30 minutes then recovered, for no reason, then I tried two 4S, in Edge would last from 06.30 to 11:00 then be down to under 20% battery. I received a new unit, same story... got a full refund. Where I live I have bad 3G in most areas and if the Edge chip is also power hungry (like in the 4S or 5), I can simply not use the Phone very long. I have a 8X for Business because of privacy, something I simply will not get on Android and also not on iOS. Apple is just downloading more than you want to believe... At least WP, every app it tells me what the app can access and MS is much more strict when it comes to data minning. My other phone is a OneXp, cause I need the 64Gb... but as soon as I can get a WP with 64Gb I will get one. But I understand you... iPhone5 seems like a good device... like the Golf GTi, everyone is happy... But if you look at the facts, you're being violated by Apple... Hard Core... what they charge for a obsolete 4inch screen phone is obscene XXX style. I am not going for that BS any longer. Do you actually have a WP8 ?

Wow, thank goodness this hasn't been my WP experience the last 2.x Years.
Everybody has a different take on things and it's hard to cover it all. I for example want the largest possible screen I can have that STILL fits in my pocket that is also my phone. The only other thing I routinely carry is a full power laptop, can't do business with a tablet.

Something big is to come!.. In due time. Everyday WP becomes more and more popular. I think the key to success is to not only get people to purchase a WP devices, but for them to choose WP again after there first experience with it.. Which shouldn't be to hard as the app gap narrows... Uhhh Instagram?? Where art thou? Lol

I don't care what numbers say, I see it everyday with my own eyes. I'd say 8 out of 10 British youngsters own a Blackberry. The rest of the population is mostly iPhone, then Android. Anyone who lives in the UK can tell you that.

I live in the UK, and I've not really seen a blackberry phone anywhwere for almost 12 months now. I saw my boss with a blackberry at our xmas party and I was taken aback as it'd been so long since I'd seen one.
Everyone seems to have either galaxy's or iPhones.

You clearly haven't been looking that much. There are most certainly plenty of BlackBerries around in the UK, I was once sat next to a girl on the bus who had 2. The new BB10 phones and os are due to be launched next month with good solid features that will at least be a match for WP8.

What your eyes see is definitely not representative of the UK, where Android is by far the majority. Young teenagers enjoy blackberries but not past the age of about 16, and Android sales far outstrip iPhone.

Germany is not bad either! If you go to gs.statcounter.org and select the daily mobile os chart for Germany, you'll see that last week's installed based share for WP in Germany was 2.54% - that is up from 1.9% November 2012 and up from about 1.9% November 2011.
It looks like Kantor's numbers for the last three month just reflect the period where WP8 was not available yet with people waiting for the release and then (most part of Novenber, beginning of December) a time when people (including me) where waiting for their pre-odered phones. I suspect the Lumia 920 high-end phone was the most ordered WP8 device in Germany, so that the shortage of this particular model really mattered.
The last 1-2 weeks of the stats now show how the devices get delivered, causing a sudden bump up of 0.6-0.7 % in the installed base market share.
So, WP share is not down but up for Germany!

I think sales of WP8-Phone will pick up next year. Most of the Onlinestores can´t deliver Lumina 920s. I had to wait almost 2 Weeks for mine.
And Germanys biggest Mobile Operator T-Mobile just announced to sell Lumina 920s due to high cutomer demand. The original Plan was to sell the 820 only.